Stories from George Washington's Ferry Farm and Historic Kenmore

A Kenmore Christmas

Historic Kenmore is decorated for the holidays, portraying what it may have looked like during the Christmas season of 1775. At that time, the Lewis family would have just moved into Kenmore a couple of months earlier, and it would have been their first Christmas in the new house. It was a time of some sadness, as well – their 15 year old son Charles had died that fall, of an unidentified illness. Although unknown at the time, it also would be the last “normal” holiday before the Revolution began in earnest.

The photos in the gallery below provide a glimpse of some traditional holiday decorations (a few have modern twists) and customs common to the 1700s.

Want to see Historic Kenmore in all of its holiday splendor? Seasonal tours are offered daily through December (Closed Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Eve). Or reserve a spot for our dramatic theater presentation that re-creates a Twelfth Night celebration inside the house on Saturday, January 3 and Sunday, January 4. See the events page on www.kenmore.org for more information!

A wreath adorns Kenmore’s front gate.

Kenmore peaks through the center of a wreath.

A wreath on the door of an administrative building.

Kenmore’s garden volunteers created the amazing wreaths and swags hanging on our buildings this year.

A wreath on the door of an administrative building.

A close-up view of a wreath.

The garden gate.

The west front of Kenmore.

Festive doors.

Magnolia in an evergreen swag.

Inside of Kenmore, we bring out greenery to decorate the banister in the Passage.

Curatorial staff attach the greenery to the banister.

In the 1700s, evergreens and local plant material, like boxwood, magnolia and holly would be brought into the house, but in small quantities.

Colonial-era decorations were quite subdued.

Branches of pine or holly would be placed in clay jars and set on tables or mantels.

In the Passage, we re-create a dessert table Betty Lewis might have created to impress her holiday guests.

The Christmas season lasted much longer than ours does, extending into January to Twelfth Night (a festive night marking the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas and celebrated much like New Year’s Eve is today).

During the ball, usually around midnight, guests were treated to the unveiling of the elaborate dessert table…

…filled to overflowing with sweets and confections arranged in imaginative ways and displayed on the best silver and glassware.

There is also a hedgehog cake, a favorite of Martha Washington’s at Mount Vernon.

The lady of the house would be severely judged on the creativity of her dessert table.

Among this year’s decorations are five tiny foxes, part of scavenger hunt for our younger visitors.

Fox hunts were a popular holiday custom with colonial Virginians and were much-loved by George Washington.